Village Of Golf A Former Dairy Farm

This summer Post Time will be featuring municipalities that are marking their golden anniversaries.

The tiny Village of Golf, incorporated 50 years ago today, straddles Golf Road between Congress Avenue and Military Trail near Boynton Beach. With about 230 residents, it’s second in population only to Cloud Lake’s 160 or so.

In fact, the 541.8-acre town is really just the country club, its 178-acre golf course, the 148 homes framing it, and a horse farm and strip center in a portion linked by Golf Road.

The town plans no special celebration, having noted the 50th anniversary of the country club last year.
The Country Club of Florida, built at a former dairy farm, was proposed to meet a shortage of golf courses in South Florida, something hard to envision now. It opened Dec. 1, 1956. A year later, homes were finished, Golf Road opened to traffic, and the application was made for a post office.

When the village was incorporated – a move designed to protect it from the ambitions of nearby Delray Beach and Boynton Beach – it still had no official residents, save about 70 cows. Carleton Blunt was mayor for 30 years, retiring in 1987.

The town has a manager and a water plant that sells to neighboring communities. It has no police department, just a small security force; county deputies are called as needed. Boynton Beach provides fire-rescue.

Elections for the five-member council come up every four years; the next time is 2009. There have been only three contested elections.

The entrance to the Country Club of Florida, located in the Village of Golf (1988 Palm Beach Post staff file photo)